The figure shows Sara (left) weighing 50kg and Afsana (right) weighing 40 kg using a seesaw together. The seesaw is 2m long. How much farther should Afsana and Sara be from the edge of the seesaw on their respective sides for the beam to be balanced?

Explanation

So, Afsana is 40 cm away from the midpoint, and Sara is 52 cm away from the midpoint.Since the seesaw is 2m (200 cm) long, the midpoint is at 100 cm. To balance the seesaw, the moments about the midpoint must be equal.Afsana's moment = 40 kg × 40 cm = 1600 kg-cmSara's moment = 50 kg × 52 cm = 2600 kg-cmTo balance the seesaw, Afsana needs to move away from the midpoint until her moment equals Sara's moment.Let's calculate the distance Afsana needs to move:New distance = (2600 kg-cm) / (40 kg) = 65 cmSo, Afsana needs to move 25 cm (65 cm - 40 cm) farther away from the midpoint to balance the seesaw.Answer: Afsana needs to move 25 cm farther away from the edgeof the seesaw. To determine if the given distances of Afsana and Sara will create equilibrium on the seesaw, we need to check if the sum of the clockwise moments is equal to the sum of the anticlockwise moments.Anticlockwise moment (due to Sara) = Clockwise moment (due to Afsana)We need to use the distance from the pivot to calculate the momentum. We know that the seesaw has a total distance of 2m, and each arm will be 1m so, the distance from the pivot= 1 - 0.40 = 0.60 m for Afsana and 1 - 0.52 m = 0.48 m for Sara (convert cm to m by dividing by 100)Weight of Sara × Distance from the pivot to Sara = Weight of Afsana × Distance from the pivot to Afsanamg x d = mg x d50 x 10 x 0.48 = 40 x 10 x 0.60240 = 240 This option is our correct answer since the clockwise moment equals the anticlockwise moment. Sara and Afsana are 52cm and 40cm away from the edge of the seesaw respectively.